Looks like Black Friday turned out to be a bit of a dud this year which should make those who adhered to the #BlackOutFriday initiative very happy.

According to the Associated Press, sales were down about 5.2 percent from last year – this based on a survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. This is in line with the prediction that sales were expected to drop 11 percent this year during the long holiday weekend.

It appears that the over-zealousness of retailers, who seem to be aiming for earlier starts when it comes to luring shoppers, isn’t producing encouraging results. People are seemingly losing interest in the hype of Black Friday and are not responding with the same fervor and sense of urgency that helped propel it to the super sport fest it has become today .

Also, shoppers are now more inclined to take advantage of the benefits and convenience associated with online shopping. This explains why online sales increased by 32 percent on Thanksgiving, while Black Friday online sales surged 26 percent.

But the National Retail Federation isn’t discouraged by the present forecast as they insist that the season is still poised to “bring a 4.1 percent increase in sales, which is the highest since 2011”.

So it looks like retailers are still holding on to hope.

In other #BlackOutFriday news, Ferguson protestors shut down St. Louis Mall in a 4 1/2 hour mass ‘die-In’. The 4 1/2 time frame is how long Mike Brown’s body laid in a Ferguson street after he was dead on August 9th by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. The ‘mass die-in’, forced the mall to close “indefinitely.”

Even though the sales are down, I’ve noticed that most major media outlets are giving little to no credit to the social Black Friday blackout boycott. Almost all credit is being given to the fact that some people shopped on Thanksgiving day……